


The Rot

by loosenyourcorset



Series: Anima Perit [1]
Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Pet Store, Eventual Smut, Fluff, M/M, Pet Store, nothing graphic just some backstory stuff, tw - abuse/death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27095020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenyourcorset/pseuds/loosenyourcorset
Summary: Noel is a pet store owner in a world where the soul can decay over time. Cody is perfection incarnate, or as close to that as one can get. Not everyone makes it to old age, but some do.A three-part series.
Relationships: Cody Ko & Noel Miller, Cody Ko/Noel Miller
Series: Anima Perit [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1977595
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	The Rot

There was something that Noel knew acutely, in the back of his mind. It bubbled up to the surface of his thoughts whenever he became winded too quickly, or coughed for what seemed like five minutes straight, or stayed up half the night unable to sleep. The hard times he had gone through in his life had finally caught up to him, signing his death warrant about sixty years before he figured it would be fair.

The thing about his diagnosis was that he didn’t feel like everything he’d endured so far made him any worse off than the next person. He had gone through some bad things, but so had everybody. Who lived a perfect life? He was twenty-five, moderately attractive in his own eyes, and he owned his own business. Actually he acquired the business from an older lady he had grown close to, and when she passed away she left the store to him. It was the nicest thing anyone has ever given him, and he made sure he took good care of the store and the animals. 

All that to say, he didn’t feel like a victim. He didn’t even feel like some kind of survivor. More or less, he felt as though all of the bad stuff in his life was behind him and over. So why was the universe making him suffer for it now?

Still, the diagnosis made sense. When he closed his eyes and let his mind view his soul, it was a sad sight. What once may have been a little ball of bright light had turned ugly, pulsating slowly as black goo seeped from the thin cracks in its exterior. The dark grey orb emitted a low, sad white light that didn’t illuminate much. It flickered like a flame, threatening to get darker and darker until it ultimately went out and took Noel’s life along with it. The doctor told him the only way to stop this from happening was to allow himself to be happy, but how the hell was he supposed to do that? He thought he already was happy, but deep down he knew better. If that was truly the case, his soul would me be mending itself on its own.

The soul didn’t get like that just because you lost your job and were upset about it, or because you didn’t have a good day at school. They added a small contribution in the grand scheme of things, sure. Overall, to be dying so young, you had to have a much larger and more damning list.

Noel’s parents died in a car crash when he was five, and after that he bounced from foster home to foster home. The parents seemingly got progressively worse. If one set yelled at him, the next laid their hands on him. This kind of thing built up in his system over time, and it was worse for him because he allowed himself to store his feelings inside. He bottled up his sadness and anger and everything else and let it sit somewhere within him, untouched ever since. When he was finally eighteen and the state dropped him as a ward, he up and left his hometown and moved clear across the country. By then his soul was already worn down, but he experienced a heartache as well. A terrible breakup was a very bad thing for soul already on the fritz, and by twenty-three Noel was experiencing the early symptoms of an untimely demise.

The doctor called it _Anima Perit_. Though it translated directly to ‘the soul dies’, it was colloquially referred to as soul rot. Pleasant, right?

Noel knew that his best chance at beating the disease was to let himself get better. The ball was in his court, he just never felt like playing. Starting with therapy would be a wonderful idea, but every time he called the office close to his house he got anxiety about it and ended the call. 

With all of this on his mind all the time, it was no surprise that he didn’t hear the bell above the door ring out when a new customer walked in. He assumed they were new, anyway. He’d never seen them in the store before, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t come in before Noel owned it. “My apologies. Welcome to Bow Wow & Meow-“ he stopped short when he saw the funny look on the customer’s face. “The store had that name when I got it,” he promised.

The customer’s face broke out into what Noel thought might be the nicest smile he’d ever seen, and if not the nicest then it was way up there. It was the first time he’d ever felt close to butterflies since his last relationship ended, and he didn’t know if he loved that feeling or loathed it.

“It’s all good. I’m not looking for anything in particular, before you ask. I’m just browsing.”

With that, the customer walked off a little further into the store. Noel felt a tinge of something he couldn’t think of a word for. When he decided to resume what he was doing, he for once didn’t feel so...passive.


End file.
